Saddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity at dawn on Saturday, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion four years ago.

In what looked like a swift response by Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam, a car bomb killed 30 people in a Shi'ite town -- the sort of sectarian attack that has pitched Iraq toward civil war since U.S. troops broke Saddam's iron grip in 2003.

"It was very quick. He died right away," one of the official Iraqi witnesses told Reuters, saying the ousted president's face was uncovered, he appeared calm and said a brief prayer as Iraqi guards walked him to the gallows and put the noose round him.

"We heard his neck snap," Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told Reuters after the indoor execution at a Justice Ministry facility in northern Baghdad.

As Maliki's fellow Shi'ite Muslims, oppressed under Saddam, celebrated in the streets, the prime minister called on Saddam's Sunni Baathist followers to end their insurgency. President Bush hailed a "milestone" for Iraqi democracy.

"Saddam's execution puts an end to all the pathetic gambles on a return to dictatorship," said Maliki, who officials said did not attend the hanging.

"I urge ... followers of the ousted regime to reconsider their stance as the door is still open to anyone who has no innocent blood on his hands to help in rebuilding an Iraq for all Iraqis."

Police in Kufa, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, said 30 people were killed and 45 wounded by the car bomb at a market packed with shoppers ahead of the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday. They said a mob killed a man they accused of planting the bomb.

Bush, who called Saddam a threat even though alleged nuclear and other weapons were never found, said: "Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself."

The deaths of four troops pushed the American death toll to just four short of the emotive 3,000 mark. Bush already faces mounting public dismay at the war as Iraq slides toward all-out civil war between Saddam's fellow Sunnis and majority Shi'ites.

Popular reactions were fairly muted as Iraqis woke on the holiest day of the Muslim calendar to begin a week of religious holidays for Eid al-Adha. Unlike at previous times of tension, no curfew was imposed on Baghdad after the execution.

Jubilant Shi'ites, oppressed under Saddam, danced in the streets of Najaf and cars blared their horns in procession through Baghdad's Shi'ite Sadr City slum.

The main Sunni television channel in the capital gave little coverage to the news -- though it did show old footage of Saddam meeting former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a time when Washington helped Iraq against Islamist Iran in the 1980s.

State broadcaster Iraqiya on the other hand ran graphic footage of Saddam's agents beheading and beating their victims. It promised to air film of the execution later.

EXECUTION AT DAWN

"He seemed very calm. He did not tremble," one senior witness to the execution told Reuters. Saddam, 69, was bound and shackled but his face was uncovered as he met his death.

The former president recited the Muslim profession of faith "There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet."

Saddam's appeal was rejected four days ago and the rapid execution will delight Shi'ites, but may anger Saddam's Sunni minority, as well as some Kurds who were hoping to see him convicted of genocide against them.

The execution was a triumph for Maliki, whose grip on his fragile national unity coalition has been questioned.

After complaints of political interference in the trial, however, the speed of the execution may fuel further unease about the fairness of the U.S.-sponsored process.

"The timing of the execution and the sudden way it has been done may irritate people," Saleem al-Jibouri, a spokesman for the main Sunni party in the national unity government, said.

Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander will be hanged after the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday, which begins formally at noon, officials said.

Saddam's daughter Raghd, in exile in Jordan, wants her father buried in Yemen, a source close to the family said.

A senior Iraqi official said the family could claim the body. It might also be sent to Saddam's home town of Tikrit, where the governor had declared a four-day curfew.

U.S. troops are on alert for trouble from insurgents among Saddam's Sunni minority. While there were some protests at November's verdict by a U.S.-sponsored court, few Sunnis have deep feelings about the fate of the fallen strongman.

Saddam was found guilty over the killing, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail after Shi'ite militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Dubai and Mariam Karouny and Mussab Al-Khairalla in Baghdad)

The final scenes of the Saddam soap as 'Saddam is well hung by a U.S. PsyOp team

'SADDAM' DISCONSOLATE AS SOAP AXED

by Fintan Dunne, 30th Dec. 2006

A disconsolate 'Saddam Hussein' is again 'between projects' as the
theatrical world would put it, after his long running soap opera was
axed by U.S. PsyOp controllers in an offseason move designed to
minimize public reaction to the demise of the man everybody loved
to hate.

In scenes reminiscent of the furore over "Who Killed JR?", Iraqi and
western audiences were glued to screens for the final episode of
the long-running drama series.

But it was an inevitable end, according to industry insiders.

"The plot had become tired," says Bernie Rothberg, a network television
analyst who has followed the fortunes of 'Saddam' in court and out.

"Pulling the plug at this time of year was clearly designed to reduce the
outcry from fans who had become attached to the tragicomical figure.
He has graced our screens and given us many hours of entertainment."

But moving on from such a starring role could prove problematic for the
star. Other actors have also found it hard to shake the public's memory
of them in a major role. Perhaps it's time for some more creative plastic
surgery, and a change of image.

Either way, we will all miss a star performer whose blustering attcks on
the U.S. and the show's court judge became a long running confrontation
which delighted audiences and earned him an international reputation.

On a night in early September 2003, the dictator was only moments
from capture. The romantic duo closing in on him were U. S. military
manhunter, Col. James Hickey, and Times reporter, Marie Colvin.
Read and wonder what might have been.

If you are one of those cynical conspiracy theorists, your jaw may drop to discover what Marie Colvin reported in Britain's Sunday Times back in September, 2003.

Colvin, an American based in Britain, is a well-connected, award-winning foreign reporter with a penchant for flowery, dramatic writing. Like this description of Yasir Arafat's plane: "hurtling through the star-pocked blackness of the desert night." Indeed.

It must go with her personality. Colleague, Maggie O'Kane lampooned her stay in Baghdad, writing that fearing a gas attack, Colvin had "kept a yellow canary in her room like a heroine from a Sebastian Faulks novel."

Colvin is wasted on current affairs. There is a wartime romance novelist in her, just bursting to get out. She is fixated on the life of legendary war reporter Martha Gellhorn. That might explain echoes of Gelhorn's relationship with Ernest Hemmingway in Colvin's meeting with Col. Hickey.

But it's her report's content -not style- which startles. It's positively spooky, as you will see.

THE GIFT OF PROPHECY

Marie Colvin's 7th, September report from Tikrit, Iraq was headlined: "Search for Saddam reaches graveyards, farmyards." She was writing from the "epicentre" of the manhunt. A hunt led by the vocally swaggering Colonel James Hickey, commander of 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.

"I'm ready. If he's here, he's got a problem," Col. Hickey had said.

The tough guy veneer is misleading. Hickey is a good foot shorter than he sounds. But Colvin is buying it all.

In her fawning tale, Hickey comes over as a cross between Wyatt Earp and Rambo. A man with a mission.

Do you recall the location of Saddam's final hideout? Media reports recounted that his "spider-hole" was ironically just across the river Tigris from the sumptuous Saladin Palace which Saddam himself had built.

You'll never guess where Hickey had set up the headquarters for his manhunt operation. According to Colvin's article it was based in:

"a marble-floored palace that Saddam built
overlooking the Tigris River."

Oh, dear. That spoils the image somewhat. It makes Hickey look less a liberator, and more like a Yankee version of the previous dictator.

And, how do Col. Hickey and his loyal staff relax, in the quiet of the evening after a hard day's manhunting? Colvin reports that:

"His officers shoot doves off the veranda at dusk and Hickey sometimes stands there at night, looking out at lights in the farms across the river and thinking of bigger prey. "

Wow! This means Hickey is gazing out at the actual farms, on one of which, Saddam will three months later be caught! If only he knew. But, hold on. There's more. Colvin writes:

"[Hickey] believes he has come very close to Saddam, although he will not say how close. "There is a high probability that this old man is in my area of operations," Hickey said last week. "

Oh! this is nail-biting stuff. Saddam is even closer than Hickey thinks and yet he does not realize. It makes you want to reach back in time, tap him on the shoulder and yell: "You're right Hickey! Saddam's on one of those farms right over there. Go get him!"

But wait. There's even more. Colvin continues:

"Hickey calculates that the modest farms below are more likely to hide Saddam than any villa. "

Oh God! I can't take this anymore. Hickey, for crying out loud, Saddam is just across the river. Follow your gut feelings, man. What's the point of being this perceptive and yet not acting on your instincts?

I mean... There's Marie Colvin, reporters notebook in hand, intently jotting down your musings, while noting your manly profile in the autumnal Iraqi moonlight. And you do? Nothing. Just ramble on and on.

Which means her report ends anticlimactically like this:

Quote:

"...Coalition forces will face danger for as long
as Saddam is out there... "

When, if only you had trusted your instincts Hickey, her report could have ended spectacularly, like this:

Quote:

"...Those farms below are more likely to hide Saddam than any villa," notes Hickey, pondering his next move.

In the distance on the farther riverbank, a tiny light briefly twinkles. Perhaps a simple peasant having a smoke. Hickey suddenly turns from the scene -his features aglow with some unspoken inspiration.

"What would you say to a Pulitzer prize, Marie?" he asks, with a wild sparkle in his eyes.

And while I am still floundering for a reply, he has already taken me firmly by the arm and steered us out off the veranda, across his office and down the pale marble staircase.

"Where are we going," I stammer disconcertedly.

Before he eventually replies, we are sitting in his army issue jeep outside the Palace door, his finger poised on the vehicle's starter button.

"Just a hunch," confides Hickey, resolve now in his eyes. "But my hunches have served me well before. Stay close to me and keep quiet. We must be quick."

The jeep's engine fires roughly, and we are off. Bouncing down the dirt track towards the bridge over the Tigris, with the wind tossing my hair. Beside me a seemingly crazed commander wrestles the wheel as we lurch around potholes.

Crossing the bridge, Hickey douses the headlights and kills the engine, then reflexively checks that his gun is in it's holster.
We coast silently across the mighty Tigris with only the cloud-obscured moon for light.

Once across, Hickey wrenches the wheel to one side and we head up the riverbank. He seems bound for that flickering light we had seen not two minutes before.

The jeep coasts to a halt. Then it's Hickey leading as we tiptoe along the river in the gloom.

Within moments he spots a tiny red glow just ahead and motions me to stop. I can make out a burly form on the bank just yards ahead, smoking. I turn to Hickey, but he is gone, as noiselessly as a prowling cat.

Then I observe a second form creep up behind the silent smoker, just as the moon glides out from behind a cloud to illuminate the scene in a ghostly glow.

"Drop that cigar, Saddam," says Hickey softly, "and keep your hands where I can see them."

I gasp in surprise as the startled former dictator spins round. For it is none other than Saddam himself, now peering to identify his challenger.

"Hickey!," he spits out with venom. "I might have known it would be you.... "

"Don't do anything stupid," warns Hickey, angling his drawn weapon so it glints in the moonlight. "I'll kill you if you make me, or wing you like a cur, but either way... I'm taking you in."

Saddam's face contorts, his gaze flicking this way and that as the realization sets in that he is cornered. Crouched in the nearby bushes, I hear him let out a great sigh, and his shoulders droop.

He slowly brings the cigar to his lips and draws one last time --long and deep. Then he tosses it over his shoulder. The stub hisses as it strikes the water and is carried away.

"I thought hiding right under your nose would be the smart play, says Saddam, exhaling. "Looks like I got it wrong."

"No Saddam," replies Hickey's calm measured tone, "I admit it was a sly move. I only began to figure it all out a few minutes ago. Then you lit that cigar and suddenly my instincts clicked. It all fell into place."

"Now, move!", continues Hickey, the steel in his voice again as he gestures with the gun.

And that's how it ended. The world's most wanted man, trudging along the riverbank. Behind, Hickey covering him as his free arm rested casually on my waist.

"Hope you weren't too scared," he said softly. "I didn't have time to explain."

"Just a little," I whispered, gazing into eyes that seemed to know everything. "But not now.... Not now."

We made our way back to the jeep, and to a world that was never going to believe what an incredible night I just had.

I'm almost moved to tears.

You see, Hickey, that's how it could have been. You had it all figured out back in September. You knew exactly where Saddam was, almost to the very farm, yet did nothing.

Now, I know some of you are cynical conspiracy theorists. I know some of you will only scoff at my romantic inclinations.

"Please don't ask us to believe," you will say, "that Saddam is dumb-ass enough to set up house just minutes from the hunt HQ. "

"And don't expect us to swallow," you might continue, "that when Colvin tells us that Hickey reckons Saddam is exactly where he was found three months later, that it's prophetic or a coincidence. Those two Yanks were laying a line on us! Prophetic, my ass!"

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. Although I must admit it's not the first time Colvin has been accused of being a mouthpiece for one side in a war.

That goes with being a war correspondent, I suppose.

But I fail to see...
[...one moment...]

Oh my God!
Maybe you are right.
I just discovered something.

Colvin pops up again on the very day that Saddam was pronounced captured. And she helped launch a conspiracy theory, believe it or not!

Joined: 22 Sep 2006Posts: 847Location: Lost in anamnesis, cannot forget my way out

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:30 am Post subject:

What can anyone do? Someone's dead that's for sure. You can be sure the dental will check out. Perhaps Saddam's dentist has also checked out. And let's get the truth about the staging of the toppling of Saddam's statue (BFN) psyop into wider circulation too. It seems eerily relevant on this day.

But as for what's already on pubic record, there is this remaining chestnut of history to settle. Maybe a few hypothetical Democratic senators with backbone putting the screws on some military.

Remember Howard Dean was gaining anti-war traction until December of 2003 when Saddam was captured and campaigning George W. could appear in public like this:

Ah, but the "spider hole" photos clearly show dates on the palm trees:

Were there really dates on the trees in December? According to a date palm cultivation website: "Harvesting in the northern hemisphere takes place at the end of summer and in the fall, starting at the end of July..."

[...]
I have no idea if US forces captured Saddam months before they said they did, or what they had to gain by delaying the announcement until December. Maybe Stanley's brain was on simmer and it just needed a couple of months to come to a furious boil and conjure up the appropriate sartorial backdrop, I don't know.

Politics may be on a forced march to the draconian beat of real-life events, but genius can't be rushed.

Note the complete brush-off (not even apologist) for the possibility that one critical aspect of the story might be deliberately falsified... and the tacit approval of what is terrifyingly obfuscated as 'politics' laid down smugly, cooly without even anger or malice. More creepy than any Little Green Football.

There seem to be a lot of people out there intelligently casually saying sociopathic things like that.

Unlike the proving of WTC7 demolition, I think the proving that the date and our minds were screwed with, in this case, would do some real good. Because someone just died. And if they can lie about any of the circumstances surrounding that, at what delicate hair-splitting point would the lies stop?

You might even get some life and country-loving fundamentalist Christians to imagine for a moment that the wrong man died on the gallows, which leads to a really rich what-if: that Saddam is alive, has been granted asylum somewhere. Maybe hiding in Idi Amin's refrigerator. Which is not a very pleasant place to tarry, if so he might need another rescue soon.

___
CHEER UP! Things may be getting worse at a slower rate.
When you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer a friend.
An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
(Herblock is on vacation)

Last edited by Hocus Locus on Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:38 am; edited 3 times in total

"...Those farms below are more likely to hide Saddam than any villa," notes Hickey, pondering his next move.

In the distance on the farther riverbank, a tiny light briefly twinkles. Perhaps a simple peasant having a smoke. Hickey suddenly turns from the scene -his features aglow with some unspoken inspiration.

"What would you say to a Pulitzer prize, Marie?" he asks, with a wild sparkle in his eyes.

[...]

"Hope you weren't too scared," he said softly. "I didn't have time to explain."

"Just a little," I whispered, gazing into eyes that seemed to know everything. "But not now.... Not now."

We made our way back to the jeep, and to a world that was never going to believe what an incredible night I just had.

Now that's real masterful, civilized writing. The person satired tends to drip, so the author really pours it on with the verve of a mastermorph; this is also a clue to the author's ability to second-guess people which is the game itself. Those targeted, herself a writer, himself a scripted and quoted military commander (not grunt), are celebrities both: fair game.

No "playing soccer with Saddam's head" as those interviewed on say, Fox, might interject -- for benefit of the Bevis and Butthead crowd.

Callers to Rush Limbaugh would be stretching out the intestines, one holding an end against the ear, another blowing. Seeing the links puff up would make everyone giggle and roll around with laughter, without knowing why. Or something like that. It's been years since I heard a broadcast.

So-Damn Insane!! I think South Park has the real So-damn, don't you think? He's all sex-perverted and shit. Gotta be him, fo' sho'!!

BTW, not to contradict what BATTL points out about the figs in December, but my daffodils are blooming like mad here in Virginia. (And it's almost January...) It may have been possible, I'm just saying...

What I do find amusing is the typical redneck stance of holding up the trophy buck that they just shot. (Photo of So-damn pulled from the hole.)

I watched CNN last night, which was comical:
1. The President was not awoken to give him the news on So-damn's hanging. This was at perhaps 11pm Central time, if he's in Texas. Bush goes to bed by 11? Okay, maybe he's an early riser.
2. A live report was broadcast from Dearborn, MI to show crowd reaction to So-damn's hanging. This was a small group of Muslim-Americans hoo-hah'ing at the news... how'd CNN know where to go to find this small group?
3. It was THE ONLY small group televised showing support for the hanging. Brilliant work, CNN.
4. Promise of taped coverage of the hanging, on & on.... I fell asleep waiting for it, but they promised it would be reviewed by the top CNN folks before it'd be broadcast, and they'd pre-warn us viewers before showing anything gruesome.
5. Finally caught the tape of the hanging on CNN this morning.... great color footage of So-damn wearing a REALLY big noose, applied by two very courteous hooded men.
6. Ooooops, cut right there, guys. Can't show the actual hanging. We don't want to freak anyone out. Let's move to the crappy B&W photo of something that looks like a dead body wrapped in a white sheet. (Who brought the old B&W camera to the party?)
7. CNN told us the people present danced around So-damn's dead body. I was really looking forward to that.

Hocus Locus: Ah, but the "spider hole" photos clearly show dates on the palm trees:

Were there really dates on the trees in December? According to a date palm cultivation website: "Harvesting in the northern hemisphere takes place at the end of summer and in the fall, starting at the end of July..."

Lol, yeah this is fake conspiracy material for CIa Fakes.
I covered this in the Saddam expose series:

Quote:

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Within three days of the 'capture' the website La Voz de Aztlan put the
spotlight on the ripened dates in an AP photo of US soldiers lifting the
cover of the alleged Saddam 'spider-hole'.

"The CIA photograph..., clearly shows a tree full of ripe dates which in
Iraq ripen in late July or early August and never in December. The
picture also shows a rope with hanging meat for drying. Our Iraqi sources
informed us that this occurs always in the summer and never in December."

" La Voz de Aztlan believes in the possibility that perhaps Saddam
Hussein was being kept prisoner by the CIA in the underground cell in
Adwar since late July of this year. "

That conclusion is dead wrong. In fact, that is the exact conclusion
desired by the psyop team who constructed this piece of photo trickery.

Take a look at the photo. Are the US military so stupid that they left -not
one, but two giveaway clues --dried meat and ripened dates-- which '
reveal' that the photo was really taken in July.

I don't buy it. Those two 'clues' are not unfortunate CIA mistakes.....

The dates and dried meat were planted deliberately so that if there was
going to be a "conspiracy theory" about Saddam's capture, it would be a
relatively benign theory that the U.S. captured him months earlier.

Voz de Atzlan and the rest of the CIA Fakes made sure this fake theory
got plenty of traction.

The same technique was used in the 7/7 bombings --where deliberate
comments by Peter Power (which proved nothing in the end), were picked
up by Alex Jones and others as the official "conspiracy theory".

Voz de Aztlan, Alex Jones etc. work hand in hand with U.S. intelligence
to provide carefully prepared smokescreening of intelligence operations
--screening designed to make sure those in the alternative media are
fooled just as effectively as their more credulous mainstream counterparts.

Saddam and Slobodan.

Two show trials.
Two diversions.
Two performing fleas.
Two CIA agents.

Now Saddam is well hung and Slobodan is poisoned.
Or so they say......

However, I hear that even at this time of year, the weather is pretty
mild in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. A quiet, remote place that's
ideal for retirement.

Saddam would be there now playing chess with Slobo and enjoying
the fruits of a well-earned retirement. If he hadn't died late in 1999.

No biggie though. Didn't affect the timing of the already planned invasion.

Tales of Saddam's doubles provided adequate cover until the occupation
could 'capture' him. And it was all a welcome boost for one guy with no
Actor's Equity membership card and a great personal plastic surgeon.

For a while anyway......

Last edited by Fintan on Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:05 pm; edited 1 time in total

BAGHDAD, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein will probably be buried secretly in Iraq after the government rejected a request by the ousted president's family to hand them the body, an aide for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday.

"The body of Saddam Hussein will most probably be buried in a secret place in Iraq," Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Maliki, told Reuters.

Asked whether the body would be given to Saddam's daughter or his family, he answered: "No."

Saddam's daughter Raghd, in exile in Jordan, wants her father buried in Yemen, a source close to the family said.

The dates and dried meat were planted deliberately so that if there was going to be a "conspiracy theory" about Saddam's capture, it would be a relatively benign theory that the U.S. captured him months earlier.

I agree with that.

I was merely pointing it out.

(Or the photos were simply taken in the summer - and had nothing to do with Saddam...)